Dumbing down the debate

SOME people are so obsessed with finding sexism theyre like excited children pointing at everything on four wheels and shouting FIRE TRUCK!

Sexists are the new reds under the bed as 2013 shapes up as the (election) Year of the Gender Wars.

There is plenty of sexism in the world. Everyday, condescending sexism. Harmless old-man-calling-you-dearie sexism. Endemic workplace sexism. Horrific, violent, sexism that leads to rape and murder.

But if there’s a furore every time someone who was avidly seeking to be offended is successful, we risk burning out before we get to the real issues.

And now that we’ve famously and officially made misogyny just another term for sexism, we’re in danger of creating a sort of vocabulary slush fund, where people pick, take and create their own meanings and definitions of bias and oppression.

For the record, Macquarie Dictionary editor Susan Butler points out in the latest edition of the Walkley Magazine that the original definition of misogyny - the hatred of women – still stands. But changes made in the wake of Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s fiery takedown of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott mean that a parallel definition of misogyny – as prejudice against women – is also in the dictionary.

In common usage, misogyny has become a synonym for sexism. As a colleague remarked, this takes the sting out of the word. It leaves us with nowhere to go when something is even worse than run-of-the-mill sexism.

It’s similar to what’s happened now swearing has gone mainstream; we no longer have shocking words to use when everything really has gone to shit.

The PM says she’ll call out sexism and misogyny when she sees it. But, practically, if she really did that, she’d have time to talk about nothing else. What’s more, people will start to hit sexism-spotting fatigue where every incident blurs into the next and they stop caring.

This week a nightclub selling cocktails called Winey Bitch and Red-Headed Slut evoked a flurry of outrage. Meanwhile in India they’re killing female babies and struggling with a rape crisis.

That’s not to say that because somewhere else has it worse we should ignore sexism here; but it is to say that a little perspective wouldn’t go astray.

It’s important to critically examine why Mr Abbott’s chief of staff Peta Credlin felt it necessary to join Margie Abbott in defending his position on women and women’s issues.

It’s relevant because Mr Abbott’s stance on issues like abortion and IVF could well directly affect policy. On the other hand, a stupid cocktail name is only interesting as part of a broader issue; not in and of itself.

People were a bit too quick to decry Peter Slipper’s texts as misogynistic, when really they were just puerile non-jokes that happened to involve female genitalia.

The unrepeatable joke made about Ms Credlin and Mr Abbott was demeaning to both of them. Unfunny and defamatory, but not really sexist.

Gender works as a wedge, politically. That’s why Labor is so happy to show Mr Abbott up as a 1950s throwback. It works. That the Opposition is so clearly worried about it also shows its potency.

We can expect this year, as the election looms, that both sides will be looking under beds for sexism and misogyny. We can expect long bows to be drawn, offence to be easily taken, outrage to be confected.

The danger is the real issues, like violence against women and workplace discrimination and bad health and education outcomes for men, will only get as much attention as the next seedy cocktail menu.

And if the gender debate runs out of strength when the heavy lifting is yet to be done, then we’re really fire trucked.